"We all connected to that vibe of getting lost somewhere and seeing where you end up.” - The Matinee
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alt image: Leanne Hoffman
Crystal Shawanda
Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Crystal Shawanda, Mimi O'Bonsawin, The Beaches, PUP, Bells Larsen, Living Hour, Geneviève Racette, and the Secret Beach
By Will McGuirk
“It’s about watching someone grieve and being in awe of their ability to keep going, despite being in a lot of pain.” - Bells Larsen
“a track about “getting stuck with yourself, forever, like an assigned middle name, or DNA. Some of it’s already built in, but mostly you’ll be walking around as you, doing dishes, meeting people, untangling what it means, being busy being busy.” - Sam Sarty, Living Hour
Geneviève Racette
Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Soccer Mommy, Raine Hamilton, Matthew Barber, Geneviève Racette , Ria Mae, Dilettante, Emi Jeen, Yves Jarvis, Allegories, and Son House
By Will McGuirk
“The purpose of these songs is to connect. They are meant to be offered and received, and the best way to do that, hands down, is in the magical shared experience of live performance.” - Raine Hamilton amilton.com/
"Viral is about the accelerated world we live in. A world in which technology grapples with nature and ingenuity spawns unintended consequences," - Matthew Barber.
“I think love is a beautiful thing. It’s just intriguing how no one actually knows how it works and what it’s made of. I’m pretty sure that’s the main reason why I write songs: I’m just trying to figure out what the heck love is,” - Geneviève Racette
"I was so tired of seeing so many of my friends feeling like “s**t” cuz a guy or girl they were seeing stopped responding out of the blue. "No Emotion = No Tomorrow" is my pop-punk take on my friends and my own dating experiences," - Emi Jeen
Absolutely Free, photo by Darren Rigo
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Absolutely Free, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, The Wilderness Of Manitoba, Caroline Marie Brooks, Oliver James Brooks, and Sultans of String
By Will McGuirk
“It’s about being lost in your own thoughts when everything feels as though it’s coming apart around you. It isn’t the start or end of something, but it’s the in-between that can feel like an oblivion.” - Will Whitwham, The Wilderness Of Manitoba
Sierra Ferrell
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Jane Mathew, Kaylee Patterson, Zach Kleisinger, Del Barber, Sierra Ferrell, Switchfoot, Black Light Animals, and Lung
By Will McGuirk
"I started writing these songs so I could vent out my frustrations but at some point, it turned therapeutic for me to be honest with myself about some difficult experiences," - Jane Mathew
“It all just comes back to trying to practice what you preach, failing, and trying again, and the record reflects that. There is a lot of brutal honesty in this album: anger, sadness, the highs and insecurities of new love, and the realization that although we think we can control our lives, ultimately that is an illusion.” - Kate Wakefield, Lung
Japandroids, photo by Camilo Christen
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Japandroids, Romana, Christophe Menassier, Plumes, Flower Pistils, Marin Patenaude, and Noah Reid
By Will McGuirk
Context is king. What is around you. What is behind, above, below you? Are you an icon, an avatar - is there more to you? Are you just a photo op, a cardboard cutout, a cartoon. . . what is your context?
Braids, photo by Melissa Gamache
Slowcity.ca open mic with Zoon, Braids, Indigo Girls, Sarah Jarosz, Noah Reid, half•alive, Davis & The Love Gear, Juke Ross, Grizzly Coast, and The Prairie States,
By Will McGuirk
Take this moment and nail it to the wall. Take every moment and nail it to the wall. Not because its your last but because it isn’t and years from now you will look for it and it will be there for you to tear off and recall and smile.
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Reuben and the Dark, Starpainter, Mike McKenna, Dana Gavanski,Zaac Pick and Bob Dylan
By Will McGuirk
Its only in life there’s a limit on time, online there’s only attention with a sell by date, so why not make a long song, why not write a seventeen minute elegy for the 60s, and when its this good well is worth the wait and worth the ride and worth paying attention to. It may be President Kennedy Dylan is talking about, but it may be too the American Dream which died with him and if you didn’t believe that then maybe you can see it now.
But in the meantime - this current global choir is getting wider and deeper.
"The town became smaller and quieter. When I also moved away, I felt compelled to write something commenting on the changing identity of 'the Bay', my nostalgia for my upbringing there, and the hopeful future." - Mike McKenna
“Often we have to go a little far in one direction to learn something about ourselves. The months of solitary writing and self-doubt testify to this, but they’ve led to Yesterday Is Gone: an optimistic, steely-eyed gaze into the future.” - Dana Gavanski
Liza Anne, photo by Phoenix Johnson
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Liza Anne, Grace Gillespie, Missy Bauman, Brielle Ansems, Mike McKenna Jr., Noah Reid, Great Lake Swimmers with Picastro and Ayla Brook & the Sound Men
By Will McGuirk
Woodshedding done, time in front of the fire in contemplation, time spent thinking, time listening to one’s own thoughts, taken, time now to begin. Begin, begin again, start, start again, seed the thoughts and see which ones take, which ones grow, which ones prosper. I have my idea now, I will drop it soon, and maybe it grows.
“This song is the feeling of having too much of a good thing. It is a reckoning with the responsibility that comes with interacting with people through a period of your own unhealth paired with the hope that you can handle yourself better in your future tomorrows.” - Liza Anne
Liza Anne will open for Bombay Bicycle Club June 16 at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto
““Goodbye” is a song about relinquishing music and giving up the dream, written at a time of much uncertainty and worry about what would become of my songs. Its lyrics mark the realization that it will never really be all over. The music wants to be alive and free.” - Grace Gillespie
Missy Bauman will celebrate the release of her new album "Sweet" Apr 16 at The Burdock in Toronto
“It seemed to be a similar story from different eras, and each character had unique ways of coping and remembering. Many of the 8 songs on the album pay tribute to stories that are true, dark and heavy in nature, and depicted through the voice of a sympathetic narrator,” - Mike McKenna Jr.